Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 62 to 56. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
o3-mini is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.
Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
55.5
o3-mini
82.1
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
44
o3-mini
49.3
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
66
o3-mini
87.3
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
83
o3-mini
93.9
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is ahead overall, 62 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 65 and 86.9.
o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 55.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
o3-mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 49.3 versus 44. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
o3-mini has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 87.3 versus 66. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
o3-mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 83. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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